Docs

What Site2PDF does

Site2PDF opens a page in a real Chrome browser, scrolls it to the bottom so everything lazy-loaded actually loads, and saves what it sees as a PDF, PNG, JPG or ZIP. Because it is a real browser, you get the page as a visitor sees it — web fonts, CSS grid, background images and all.

Two things it deliberately does not do: it does not log in for you (only publicly reachable pages can be captured), and it does not reproduce video or interactive widgets — those become the still frame that was on screen.

Quick start

1. Paste a URL on the capture page.
2. Pick a mode — Single page for one URL, Full website to crawl and choose pages.
3. Pick a format and device, then start the capture. Large sites keep running if you close the tab.
4. Download from the result screen, or later from your account if you are signed in.

You can capture without an account. Signing in adds saved history, scheduled captures and a higher monthly allowance.

Single page, full website or a list

Single page

One URL, captured end to end as one tall image or a paginated PDF. Fastest option, and the one to use for a receipt, a listing or a single article.

Full website

Site2PDF reads the site's XML sitemap when there is one and falls back to following links. You then get a picker with a thumbnail and title per page, and you choose what goes into the archive — switch between rows and grid with the toggle above the list.

Scanning stops after the first batch of pages so a 5,000-page site does not keep you waiting. Press Scan more pages to load the next batch; the counter above the list shows how many were found and how many are selected.

The pages then render one after another and are assembled into a single PDF (or a ZIP of images). Your plan caps the pages per archive — see Plans & limits.

Bulk URLs

Use this when you already know exactly which pages you want and they are not a whole site — a set of competitor pricing pages, ten articles, a client's landing pages. Paste them into the box one per line (commas and spaces work too), press Continue, and you land in the same picker as a full-website scan, with every option available there.

The URLs do not have to share a domain. When they span several sites, each file inside a ZIP is named with its host, so 001-example-com-pricing.pdf is never confused with 002-other-site-org-pricing.pdf.

A bulk run counts as one archive against your monthly allowance, and the number of URLs is capped by your plan's pages-per-archive limit. example.com/page without https:// is accepted; lines that are not URLs are reported and skipped rather than silently dropped.

Formats & devices

Site language

Many sites serve a different language depending on what your browser asks for. Site language sets exactly that request, so you decide which version gets captured instead of inheriting whatever our server happens to prefer. English is the default; twelve languages are available in both single-page and full-website mode.

It applies to every page in an archive, it is stored with saved settings, and a scheduled capture keeps the language it was created with — so its re-runs stay comparable with the first one. A site with only one language ignores it.

Devices

Desktop renders at 1920 px wide, tablet and mobile use the matching viewport and a mobile user agent, so responsive sites return their mobile layout rather than a squeezed desktop one.

Advanced options

Everything here is optional — defaults are chosen to give a clean capture without any setup. Selector fields accept any CSS selector, comma-separated, exactly as you would use in the browser console.

Cookies & ads

Hide cookie banners (on by default) removes consent notices. Site2PDF knows the markup of 30 + consent platforms — OneTrust, Cookiebot, CookieYes, Complianz, Cookie Notice, Osano, Didomi, Usercentrics, Quantcast, TrustArc, Iubenda and more — and falls back to a generic rule that catches pinned overlays talking about cookies. Scroll locks the banner left behind are released too, which is what lets the rest of the page scroll and capture.

Remove ads (on by default) blocks ad networks before they load and collapses the empty boxes they leave behind. Blocking them also makes captures faster.

If something survives, right-click it in your browser, choose Inspect, copy its id or class, and paste it into the matching selector field — for example #cookie-notice or .consent-bar. Then send us the URL so we can add it to the built-in list and nobody has to do it twice.

Wait for the page to finish loading

Off by default. Site2PDF already waits for the load event, scrolls the whole page to trigger lazy content and waits for images — enough for most sites, and switching this on costs time on every page. Turn it on when a capture is missing something that appears a moment after the page opens: late-arriving sections, content fetched after render, slow embeds.

It waits up to 20 seconds for network activity to stop, then captures regardless. That cap matters: some sites poll analytics or rotate ads forever and never go quiet, and waiting for them without a limit would turn a slow capture into a failed one.

Hide elements

Any selector listed here is hidden before the capture. Use it for chat bubbles, newsletter pop-ups, sticky promo bars — anything that is noise in an archive. Hidden elements are also excluded from change detection, which makes this the fix for a page whose only "change" is a view counter or a rotating quote.

Unfix headers

Sticky headers normally repeat down a long capture. Site2PDF already unsticks the common cases; add a selector here for a stubborn one.

Expand accordions

Collapsed FAQ and tab content is invisible to a screenshot. Give a trigger/panel selector pair and Site2PDF opens each one before capturing, so the answers end up in the archive.

Custom pages

Paste URLs by hand instead of relying on the crawl. Useful for pages missing from the sitemap, or when you want an exact set in an exact order.

Worked out a good set of rules for a site? Don't retype it next time — see Saved settings.

Saved settings

Getting the selectors right for an awkward site is the slow part of a capture, and it used to be thrown away every run. A preset stores that work and re-applies it with one click.

The bar sits at the top of Advanced options in both modes:

• Save current… — names the options as they are right now.
• Apply — drops the chosen preset's rules into the form.
• Update — overwrites the chosen preset with what is currently in the form.
• Delete — removes it. Renaming lives in your account, together with a list of what each preset contains.

A preset holds the rules only: cookie, ad, hide and unfix selectors, expand rules, and the two hide toggles. It deliberately does not store the URL, device, format or page selection — those change every run, and applying a preset must never quietly overwrite a choice you just made.

Saving needs a free account. How many you can keep depends on the plan — see Plans & limits. Saving under a name that already exists overwrites that preset rather than creating a second one with the same name.

Legal capture

Turn this on when the archive may need to stand up to scrutiny — evidence of what a page said on a given day, compliance snapshots, a client's claims before they were edited.

It adds two things. Every page gets a certificate footer — the source URL, the capture timestamp in UTC, the viewport, and the page number. And the archive gets a SHA-256 hash of the captured page text. Re-hash the same content later and an identical hash means nothing was altered; a different hash means it was.

Signed-in users get the hash and certificate stored with the archive in their account, so the proof survives the download. It is available on every plan, including Free.

Site2PDF attests what its browser received at that timestamp. It is not a notary service and does not sign on behalf of a legal authority.

Schedule & monitor

A watch re-captures a page — or a whole set of pages — on a schedule, and can email you when the content changes. Set one up from the Schedule & monitor panel under any capture, or straight after a capture from the prompt on the result screen. Watches need an account.

Frequency

Daily, weekly or monthly, on every plan including Free. What the plan limits is how many watches you can run at once — see Plans & limits. Change the frequency of an existing watch from the dropdown in your account.

When you get an email

So a daily watch sends at most one email per day. For a whole-site watch, the email lists exactly which pages changed. Failed runs never email — the error shows in your account instead.

What counts as a change

Site2PDF compares a hash of the page's visible text, with whitespace normalised. Two consequences worth knowing:

• A redesign that keeps the same words is not a change.
• View counters, "today is…" stamps and rotating quotes are a change, every single run. Hide that element under Advanced options → Hide elements and the noise disappears, because hidden elements are left out of the hash.

Timing

Captures run in the background, so a watch is queued at one point and collected shortly after — expect the email within about fifteen minutes of the run, not the same second. Run now behaves the same way: the capture starts immediately, the result and email follow once the run is collected.

Archives & retention

Signed-in users get every capture listed in their account — URL, date, format, page count, and the legal hash where one exists — with a download link for as long as the file is kept.

Files are deleted automatically when their retention window ends; the window depends on your plan and is listed below. Download anything you need to keep permanently. Guests get a download link for the current session only — nothing is stored against an account.

Plans & limits

Every plan can use all four formats, every advanced option, legal capture, bulk URL lists, and daily / weekly / monthly schedules. Paid plans raise the volume, not the feature set. Creating a free account adds 5 archives a month on top of the Free row above.

A bulk run counts as one archive no matter how many URLs are in it, and the "Pages / archive" figure is the most URLs one list may hold. Single-page capture stays free with no account; full-website and bulk runs need a free account.

Compare prices on the pricing section. Plans are billed monthly through Paddle and can be cancelled at any time.

Troubleshooting

A cookie banner is still in my capture

Copy the banner's id or class into Advanced options → Cookies & ads, and please send us the URL — built-in coverage grows from exactly these reports.

The scan found fewer pages than the site has

Scanning works in batches; press Scan more pages for the next one. If pages are genuinely missing — no sitemap, or nothing links to them — add them under Custom pages.

Part of the page is blank or cut off

Usually lazy-loaded content that renders only when scrolled into view, inside a container with its own scrollbar. Site2PDF flattens the common cases. If it persists, send us the URL.

"This site blocks automated capture"

Some sites sit behind a security service (Cloudflare, Akamai and similar) that is configured to refuse anything that is not a person clicking. When that happens Site2PDF stops and tells you, rather than handing you a PDF of the "you have been blocked" page — a file like that looks like a successful capture until you open it.

If the message says the check did not finish in time, a retry often works: those checks are timed, and a busy moment is enough to miss the window. If it says the site blocks automated capture, that is the site's deliberate choice and nothing on our side changes it. A failed page like this still does not produce a file, and in a multi-page archive the remaining pages carry on and are listed with their result.

The capture needs a login

Not supported — only publicly reachable pages can be captured. There is no way for Site2PDF to hold your credentials safely, so it does not ask for them.

A watch emails me every day with nothing changed

Something on the page changes every load. Find it, hide it under Advanced options → Hide elements, and the hash stops moving. See what counts as a change.

Email me when the archive is ready

Under Advanced options → Notify on a full-website or bulk run. Off by default, and your choice is remembered: tick it once and every later archive mails you too, until you untick it. Single-page conversions have no such option, since they finish while you are looking at the progress bar.

The email arrives when the run finishes or fails — a failure notice matters more than a success one, since otherwise you would sit waiting for a message that never comes. It names how many pages were captured, how many were not, and how long the file stays available on your plan. A failed run also returns the archive to your monthly allowance — a run that produced nothing does not cost you one, whether or not you asked for the email.

A large archive is taking a long time

Every page is a real browser render, so hundreds of pages take minutes, not seconds. Closing the tab is safe — the job finishes on the server and lands in your account.

If you would rather stop it, press Cancel under the progress bar. Anything already generated is deleted and the archive goes back to your monthly allowance, so a cancelled run costs you nothing. The Generate button stays disabled while a run is in progress — a second press would start a second archive and spend a second slot.

Cancelling lands within one page rather than instantly: the capture runs in a background process, and it checks for your request between pages rather than abandoning one half-rendered.

Privacy & fair use

Captures are stored for your retention window and then deleted. We do not sell data, and we do not share your archives. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

Please capture responsibly: only content you have the right to access, and be considerate with repeated whole-site captures of sites you do not own. Respecting the target site's terms is on you — see the terms.